But after escaping the plane, his luggage, including a tux for the Grand Hyatt gala, was impounded for FAA and NTSB investigations.

Julian Jones in the LaGuardia Delta Skykounge 20 minutes after the accident.Photo courtesy of Julian Jones

Luckily, Jones’ hosts hurried him to Macy’s before the event to pick out a new black-tie outfit and make it just in time.

Hours after the accident, the visiting scholar was mixing with VIPs including former Mayor David Dinkins and Dr. Roscoe C. Brown Jr., one of the famed WWII Tuskegee Airmen.

A gala guest quipped, “Roscoe knows a thing or two about plane crashes himself.”

The former squadron commander, 92, flew 68 combat missions and brought down a Nazi Messerschmitt Me 262. He later became Bronx Community College president and was honored Thursday.

Jones was reassured by the former fighter pilot Brown when they met at the gala. “As rare an event as this was, there are those out there who can relate to this. I really felt, coming from him, he knew what it was like,” Jones told us.

He added that even after the dramatic Delta accident: “I was focused like a bloodhound to make it to this event.”

And, “Everything happens for a reason. If you’re dealt a bad hand, it’s what you make of it. It could have been traumatic to the point where I couldn’t function — but I thought, ‘I’m gonna take this bull by the horns and take it all the way to the ground.’ Looking back, something positive came from what could have been a total tragedy.”

Jones was selected to attend the United Negro College Fund gala after attending a Koch Scholars event in Washington, DC. He’ll next attend a summit of Koch Scholars later this year.

A guest at the gala also pointed out that David Koch, whose foundation gave $25 million to the UNCF, walked away from a USAir runway crash himself back in 1991.